Highlights
The first hard indication on consumer strength in May is very good as unit vehicle sales rose 4.4 percent to a 16.8 million annual rate that is well beyond the high-end of the Econoday consensus for 16.3 million. May's rate is the highest of the recovery, since July 2006. Sales of domestic-made vehicles rose 3.9 percent to a 13.3 million rate which is the highest since January 2006. Foreign-made sales rose 6.3 percent to a 3.4 million rate that was last matched in March. Today's report points to solid strength for the motor vehicle component of the government's retail sales report for May.

Recent History Of This Indicator
Sales of total light motor vehicles in April vehicle sales could not match the record setting pace of March but still proved very strong, at an annual pace of 16.0 million versus March's 16.4 million.

Definition
Unit sales of motor vehicles include domestic sales and foreign sales, otherwise referred to as imports. Domestics are sales of autos produced in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Imports are U.S. sales of vehicles produced elsewhere. These are for light vehicles which include all passenger cars and light trucks up to 14,000 pounds gross weight (including minivans and sport utility vehicles). Individual manufacturers usually report sales on the first business day of the month. One of the first tabulators of the data is Autodata Corporation. Motor vehicle sales are good indicators of trends in consumer spending and often are considered a leading indicator at business cycle turning points. One should note that manufacturers do not break out vehicle sales to businesses, which are a smaller but still significant percentage of the monthly total.
Why Investors Care

Motor vehicles sales slowed notably in 2008 and 2009 due to recession. Recovery boosted sales in 2010 and early 2011 before economic growth slowed. Truck shares hit their peak in 2005 when gasoline was cheap. Trucks have since oscillated sharply with spikes in gasoline in 2008 and 2010.Data Source: Haver Analytics